Not that the fastest speed is much better...

Travel instead to Peterborough, which boasts the fastest speed: an average of 3.86Mb/s. Poor old Milton Keynes managed just 1.73Mb/s.

The numbers come from broadband price comparison site Top10.com which released an iPhone app in December 2010 that included a broadband speed test. The app has been downloaded 7000-odd times up to the end of March, though not all those folk who did so subsequently went to Top10's website to key in their results.

"Thousands" did, however, and their numbers provided the following list of towns with the poorest download speeds.

Town/City

Download Speed
(Mb.s)

Milton Keynes

1.73

Leicester

2.01

Huddersfield

2.17

Cardiff

2.18

Liverpool

2.21

Blackburn

2.23

Stevenage

2.23

Hull

2.35

Stafford

2.37

Birmingham

2.43

Source: Top10.com

Manchester just missed the top ten, scoring 2.47Mb/s, and London averaged 2.6Mb/s, putting it well into the top 20, along with Newcastle (2.6Mb/s) and Glasgow (2.69Mb/s).

It's not a scientific study, of course, and we've no guide as to the prevalence - or not - of specific network operators. Still, this reporter has tried mobile broadband from several carriers in the Milton Keynes area and, yes, it's pretty woeful.

Compared to fixed broadband speeds, even Peterborough's leading speed isn't exactly a figure to be pleased about. ®